Puck Pieterse Narrowly Misses Podium at Mountain Bike World Championships as Frei Dominates

Sina Frei delivered a masterpiece victory Sunday at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships.

The Swisswoman continued her nation’s reign over olympic cross country racing by dominating from the start of Sunday’s XCO world championships in Val di Sole, Italy.

Frei was flawless throughout in what was a near-wire-to-wire victory and ultimately powered home 1:07 ahead of her closest rivals.

The rainbow jersey caps an already stellar season for the 29-year-old, who won the European XCO title in July and dominated the UCI World Cup circuit.

Martina Berta (Italy) nipped Nicole Koller (Switzerland) at the line to deny Switzerland a 1-2 after the two were locked in each other’s wheels through the back half of the notoriously tough circuit in Val di Sole.

All-terrain star Puck Pieterse (Netherlands) narrowly missed out on a medal after she made a late chase for Koller and Berta.

Pieterse, who won the Queen of the Mountains jersey last month with Fenix Premier Tech at the Tour de France Femmes, worked out fourth, just 18 seconds back.

Team USA missed out on a top result Sunday but made up for it with density.

Olympic silver medalist Hayley Batten started out strong and slotted into the early lead groups but ultimately slid back.

Savilia Blunk, Batten, and Gwendalyn Gibson ended up 9-10-11 in what was a hot, hard afternoon in Italy. Isabella Holmgren was 12th to make a block of four North Americans.

The 2025 world champion Alessandra Keller (Switzerland) had to make do with unlucky 13th. She was forced to change bikes in lap 1 and was left battling traffic from there on.

Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock headline the men’s race alongside the MTB specialists like Alan Hatherly, Christopher Blevins, and Victor Koretzky.

Top 5: UCI elite women cross country world championships

1st. Sina Frei (Switzerland): 1:27:50
2nd. Martina Berta (Italy): +1:07
3rd. Nicole Koller (Switzerland): +1:07
4th. Puck Pieterse (Netherlands): +1:25
5th. Samara Maxwell (New Zealand): +1:48

You can find the full results here courtesy of our friends at PinkBike.